TIME TO TURN OUT THE LIGHTS AND LET TRUMP SLEEP IN FLORIDA

Just this past week, it happened again for all to see.

At a White House event about health care affordability and prescription drug prices, Donald Trump appeared to doze off during an announcement tied to his administration’s drug-pricing deal with Regeneron.

Sadly, this is not the first time the country has watched Trump sit through public business with his eyes closed. Reuters reported earlier this year that Trump denied sleeping during a Cabinet meeting, saying he was merely bored and “didn’t sleep.

I’m no doctor, and nobody should treat a medical diagnosis as fact without an examination. Still, the presidency is the most demanding job in the country, and the people deserve transparency about whether the person holding it is physically and mentally up to the job.

Trump is 79 years old. Joe Biden was 82 when he left office. The MAGA crowd spent years chanting “Sleepy Joe” like it was a national emergency, but after watching Trump repeatedly close his eyes through public events, I never want to hear that phrase again.

Trump was born on June 14, 1946, and Biden was born on November 20, 1942. Our country has now lived through back-to-back presidencies with the White House resembling a retirement home.

This is bigger than party loyalty. Republicans deserve a president who is present. Democrats deserve an accountable president, while Independents and third-party voters deserve a president who can sit through kind of important meetings without making the country wonder whether he is awake, and engaged, or just wanting to be on a golf course in Florida during the day, with a late-afternoon nap before scrolling social media and binge-posting all night.

This is exactly why the 25th Amendment exists, as a constitutional safeguard for moments when our country has to debate whether a president can mentally and physically execute the job as President of the United States.

America deserves better than this. We deserve leaders who are awake, alert, transparent, and capable.

So maybe it is time to turn out the lights and let him sleep.

In Florida.

And then maybe, finally, America can stop electing presidents who are checked out mentally and physically.